“I’m about to grab something to eat. You and Nate are welcome to join.”
“Actually,” She waved the envelope, “we were inviting you to a thank-you dinner at our place." She held Nathaniel mid-air between them.
“Is this a paper invitation?” He laughed. “I would have been fine with a text.”
“I love fancy stationery.”
“You’d love my mother. She writes grocery notes on paper too fancy for the Queen.”
“Makes the dinners taste better.” Reina laughed. "Speaking of dinner. I had next week in mind but if you’re okay with something simple, we can do it tonight.”
“No thanks needed. I’d love to come but don’t go through the trouble of cooking.”
“Please let us do this. It would make Nate really happy.” She cooed, “Wouldn’t it?” to the baby now cradled in her arms.
“I wouldn’t dream of disappointing my man Nate. What time?”
She blessed him with what he’d now titled her signature smile. “An hour?”
“Sounds like a plan. Nate, any special request for dessert?”
He was amused when she immediately responded, “He’s partial to the cookies and cream cupcakes at the shop around the corner.”
Her excitement was adorable. She made him chuckle as he headed out to buy “Nate” all the cookies and cream cupcakes to guarantee a smile to last for days.
Chapter 5
Reina opened the door and beamed at the sight of the clearly marked cupcake bag in Eli’s hand.
“I have pizza delivery on standby in case you don’t like what I’m cooking.”
He playfully tapped her nose. “You'd make a lousy salesperson.”
Reina looked unsure if the mischievous glint in his eyes meant he was flirting. She let the moment pass. She led him to the living room he hadn’t been in since they first met.
“Where’s Nate?” He took a seat on the couch as invited.
She pointed toward his nursery. “The king changed his mind about eating with us peasants. And now that he’s fed and changed, he’s decided to either sleep through the night or take a nap. Time will tell.”
“Babies have it made.”
“They sure do. Who else can sit around 24/7 being waited on hand and foot? He’s lucky he’s so cute.”
Just like his mother. The thought materialized before he had a chance to register it. While this wasn’t a date, he’d never been invited to a woman’s home where she didn’t greet him in a short dress, high heels, and a face full of makeup. If you had asked him before this moment, he would have sworn there was no other way for a woman to be sexy. Looking at Reina in a pair of jeans, a soft sweater, and pink glasses-print socks certainly amended his definition of the word.
“Earth to Eli.” She waved her hand.
Happy she couldn’t read his mind, he apologized for zoning out. “Guess I’m going into a hunger coma.”
She tapped two fingers against her chin and made a face as if deep in thought. “Isn’t it a food coma? Don’t you have to be full to experience it?”
He enjoyed her teasing. “Speaking of food, what smells so good?”
With excitement, she grabbed his hand and dragged him into the kitchen. The feel of her touch shocked his system. He must have hesitated because she said, “Don’t tell me you’re taking my earlier warning to heart.” She let go of his hand and moved to the stove, but his body still experienced her touch.
“I’m excited to try?”
“Pesto quinoa with sautéed kale and shrimp.” She pulled off the cover of the pan for her big reveal.
“I’m impressed.”
“Taste it first.”
“How quickly can the pizza guy get here?”
It took her a second to realize he was kidding. “Just for that, Nathaniel and I will not be sharing our cupcakes.”
“Don’t you mean Nathaniel’s cupcakes?” The thought of losing out on a cupcake formed her mouth into a playful pout.
Though innocent, the action drew his eyes to her full lips accentuated by a deep cupid’s bow and the soft hint of gloss. He was mesmerized.
Her eyes widened in recognition as the lighthearted moment quickly intensified. For her comfort, Eli blinked away the temptation to kiss her, cleared his throat, and said, “I’m starving. Let’s eat.”
The dinner conversation about their lives continued throughout the evening. She was surprised to learn that he was born and raised in a town in Massachusetts called Brookline and had only come to New York to attend school.
“Let’s see if I’m following this correctly,” Reina said.
“Go ahead. I’ll let you know if you’ve missed anything.”
“You were a business major as an undergrad with plans to join your family’s law firm after graduation.” She paused.
“Correct.”
“But you somehow ended up a firefighter.”
“Correct again.”
When he didn’t elaborate, she asked, “Care to connect the dots for me?”
“Rebellion.”
“Against THE MAN?”
He chuckled at her silliness. “My father and grandfather were pressuring me to go to law school. I told them I wanted to stay with business. They were against it and I wasn’t backing down.”
“Who caved?”
“They said follow their plans or I wouldn’t see a cent for grad school.”
“Tough love.”
“I showed them. Second semester freshman year I moved to an off-campus apartment. My on-campus roommate was a jerk. Anyway, I tried to cook and almost burned the place down.”
“Remind me to keep you away from the stove.”
“I’ve gotten better.” He laughed. “Luckily, I lived right above a fire station. Ended up making friends with the guys there.”
“Is that how you joined them?”
“Yes and no. It dawned on me I could force my father and grandfather to cave if I said I was joining the department.”
Reina let out a loud laugh. “That’s Lauren-level dramatic.”
“Nate’s godmother, right?”
“Same one. You’ll see for yourself when you meet her.” She shook her head. “What was your strategy with that plan?”
“They could either cover the cost of my MBA or have me become a firefighter. Back then I assumed they would choose that over blue-collar work.”
“Blue-collar? What do you have against an honest living?”
He could smack himself for offending her. “That sounded much more aristocratic than it was meant.”
“What did you mean?”
This wasn’t the direction he wanted the night to take. “I’m sorry. I’m not a snob and neither is my family.”
“Sounded snobbish.”
“I’ll give you that.” He rubbed the nape of his neck. “My family jokes that anything outside of law is a useless profession.”
She grinned slightly. “Tell me again about not being snobs.”
He palmed his face. “Maybe I can call my butler to clean up the mess I’m making of this conversation.”
She lightly smacked his shoulder in response.
“In all seriousness, I think they pushed so hard because they wanted at least one of us kids to carry on the family practice.”
“A firefighter, a writer, and a marketing executive in the family should hopefully make up for it.”
“My father has mellowed over the years. He’s accepted the legal line ends with him.”
“What happened with using the fire department as a bargaining chip?”
“It backfired when they called my bluff.” He enjoyed how her eyes communicated unsaid words. They widened to a full moon to express her shock. “The process took years from the time I signed up, took the written test and was finally called in, but when I was, they figured I’d last a few months and then come crawling back home tired from doing hard labor.”
“And you didn’t.”
“Shockingly, to me and everyone else in my fam
ily, I discovered a sense of purpose I hadn’t known existed. For the first time in my life, I was truly able to find meaning in something I was doing.”
The smile that lit up her face on his behalf was almost his undoing. He forced himself to count to five, and then ten, to keep from kissing her. Never had a smile elicited such yearning from him. He added five more to his count to slow his pulse. Needing something else, he looked around the room and landed on her wedding picture. The look of adoration on her face leveled his pulse.
Following his eyes, she filled him in on the details of that day nearly two years ago.
“I was so calm. All the bridal magazines said I would be nervous. Go figure.”
“They don’t know everything.”
“It was a bittersweet day. I had an overwhelming ache in my heart that my parents and great-aunt Loretta weren’t alive to celebrate with us.”
“I’m sorry you didn’t have them with you.”
“Thanks.” She nodded. “Jared was so thoughtful. He knew how much I would be missing them and gave me this locket.” She snapped open the locket around her neck so Eli could see the smiling faces of her parents on one side and her aunt on the other.
“Sounds like a great guy.”
A soft smile played on her lips. “My thirteen-year-old self was thrilled to finally get to marry him.”
“You’ve been in love with him since you were thirteen?” Eli’s tone betrayed his amazement.
“Since the day I moved in with Aunt Loretta after my parents were killed by a drunk driver,” she answered. “Jared lived next door with his grandmother, Ms. Eunice, great-aunt Loretta’s best friend.”
“That’s a strong personal tie.”
“They treated us like family. Jared was twenty-one, handsome and popular. He looked out for me like you would an annoying kid sister.” She laughed. “I hated it. I wanted him to see me as a grown up.”
“And not just as a kid with a crush.” Eli filled in.
“He was so patient with me. So protective.” Reina seemed a million miles away. “I think he found a kindred spirit in me because we were both orphans. His father had died before he was born and his mother during childbirth.”
Eli nodded.
“I asked him to marry me at least once every day from the week after we met until I left Brooklyn to head to North Carolina for college.”
“Persistent.”
“Little good it did me. My freshman year of college he broke the news that he was getting married. You never met a more devastated eighteen-year-old.”
“That’s a tough break.”
“I begged him not to go through with it. How could he possibly marry someone else when he was the love of my life? We belonged together.” She smiled sadly.
They heard Nate stirring on the baby monitor. “Give me a second. Let me go check on him.”
Reina came back with Nate who was still mostly asleep.
“Grab that blanket please,” she whispered.
Eli spread the blanket on the floor between them and Reina gently deposited Nate, who fell back asleep soon after.
Eli waited for Reina to settle herself and continue the story.
“I told him never to talk to me again if he went through with it. He told me that he loved me like a little sister and someday I’d find a man who would love me differently.”
“Not exactly what you were hoping to hear.”
“That’s why we didn’t speak for nine years.” Reina exhaled a long breath. “It helped that I stayed in North Carolina.”
“To get away from him?”
“I couldn’t handle seeing him with someone else.”
“You had to cut him out of your life.”
“I had to. I stayed in touch with his grandmother, but he was an off-limit topic. As far as I was concerned, we would have continued that way forever if it hadn’t been for the death of his grandmother three years ago.”
“I’m sorry about that.”
“She was the sweetest woman. I hated that I’d put her in the middle of animosity. Especially the year before her death when I’d moved back to New York and could see how frail she’d become.”
“I’m sure she understood given your feelings for her grandson.”
“I like to think she was glad Jared and I ended up together in the end.”
“How’d that happen anyway?”
“Funny thing. Turns out he and that girl never did get married.”
“That must have made you happy.”
“It did, but part of me was bitter that we’d lost so much time.”
He nodded his understanding.
“Jared had wanted me to experience life and to get over my crush, as he called it, so he asked his grandmother to keep quiet. He stayed away for my own good.”
“The things we do for love.”
Reina stared at their wedding picture. “And love me Jared did. We were married a year after we reconnected, and I was pregnant with Nate the year after that. And then–” She stiffened, unable to continue.
He thought again of the day of the funeral and realized now why she’d seemed so broken. Loving someone for seventeen years and then losing him so brutally would upend anyone’s foundation. He considered telling her about Jared’s connection to Jason, but she continued before he had a chance.
“I see so much of him in Nate.”
Nate was now propped up on the blanket, several pillows behind him for support. He was awake and intently focused on the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling.
“He can be such an easy-going baby,” Eli remarked.
“When the mood strikes him,” she said. “For the most part he is. And that’s all Jared. The impatient, impulsive part, well . . .”
He smiled. “You would fail the waiting game, huh?”
“I’m patient, as long as things don’t take too long.”
Coming to a comfortable silence, he stood up to leave when he spied the late hour on the clock. At the door, she told him, “I know you’re getting tired of hearing it, but I’m so grateful for all you’ve done for us.”
He stepped outside and stood leaning against the doorframe staring at her and wishing she’d stop thanking him. Anyone else in that situation would have done the same.
“I’m a sucker for a happy ending.” He brushed her cheek.
She sighed and smiled in response as she closed the door.
Upstairs, Eli reflected on the night with Reina. As the evening progressed it became difficult to remember all the reasons why he shouldn’t be attracted to her. When she spoke with such passion of her love for Jared, he was forced to remember then. Tonight confirmed he would be competing with a ghost if he and Reina ever took their relationship beyond a friendship. Would things be different if she could move on from him? Deciding it wasn’t worth speculating, he tried to forget his attraction to her and focused instead on appreciating making a new friend. So what if her skin feels like velvet? Or her smile makes me want to fight armies to keep her happy? Who cares if I’ve never laughed so freely and frequently with a woman who wasn’t a member of my family? Those things didn’t matter in the face of reality.
His head back in place, he repeated his new mantra: “She’s not your type, she comes with baggage, and she’s still in love with her dead husband.” If those things didn’t straighten out his feelings, nothing would.
“Lucky for you we’ve finally crossed paths,” Lauren told Eli. “I was getting tired of waiting for her to introduce us. One more day and I would have come knocking on your door myself.”
“That’s her version of hello, nice to meet you,” Reina responded. “My apologies for her rudeness.”
Eli’s eyes creased up. “Hi and nice to meet you, too, Lauren.”
“You’re a hero and you’re handsome. What’s your deal, are you single?”
“Lauren!” Reina exclaimed at the same time Eli busted out laughing.
“How am I supposed to know if I don’t ask?” Lauren answered. She had no qu
alms about stirring the pot. Her best friend was hiding from her feelings. It was her job to nudge her out.
“You don’t have to answer that,” Reina told Eli.
“The heck he doesn’t,” she said and nudged Eli. “Come on, Hero, are you free to ask someone on a date or not?”
Lauren watched Reina out of the corner of her eyes. The child was trying to look uninterested but the hitch in her breath told Lauren everything she needed to know. Eli’s answer mattered to Reina.
“It depends on the person.” Eli looked at Lauren head on. She wasn’t sure why, but it felt like he was saying what she was thinking. They both knew Reina was that someone.
Good. It makes my matchmaking so much easier when half of the love match is onboard.
Eli playfully yanked Nate’s feet and made him giggle. “Catch you after work, little man.” He picked up his backpack from the ground. “Ladies, thanks so much for the distraction. I much prefer to stay and chat, but duty calls.”
“We’ll catch up soon,” Lauren said, purposely batting her eyes to gauge the pinched look on Reina’s face. She could keep denying her interest in Eli, but her words and her actions weren’t on the same page.
Reina barely closed the door before Lauren screamed, “Do we need to get your eyes checked?”
“Please use your inside voice, Ms. Kennedy.”
Lauren brought her voice down an octave. “The rugged, gorgeous man I met downstairs is the one you have no interest in?” Lauren raised her right hand to her forehead in imitation of a Southern Belle. “Catch me before I faint.”
“Clearly you missed your Soap Opera calling.” Reina walked away to change Nathaniel’s diaper.
“Clearly you’ve lost your mind.” Lauren mimicked her tone. “He’s a firefighter.” Lauren said it as if Reina had missed that fact.
“Yes, a firefighter. A man who voluntarily runs into burning buildings.”
Reina prayed for patience. Her head was pounding and her eyelids heavy. “Ariel, I’m exhausted. I don’t want to have this conversation.” She loved Lauren, but sometimes the girl didn’t know when to quit. “I’m saying this one more time: Eli is a friend. Just a friend. Nothing more.”
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